Panoz Esperante

Panoz is one of those small car companies that either no one has heard of, or people that have heard of it aren't sure if they're still around or not. You can sleep soundly however, because the folks from Georgia happen to mostly know what they're doing.

 

 For the folks that are unfamiliar with Panoz and their cars, the typical initial reaction is "wow, that's an ugly kit car." Panoz' design has always been unique, but never quite pretty. However, that's not the point for them. Like many great racing outfits throughout the years, Panoz sells roadcars so they make race cars. Their most extreme example was the Eperante GTR-1 and the following LeMans prototype… dubiously named the LMP-1. The GTR-1 was so outrageous it was awesome. So awesome in fact that I have multiple HotWheel GTR-1's! I've always enjoyed Panoz' side profile and ass end design…but for some reason, the front end styling always happens to come suddenly becoming myoptic.

On paper, the road going Esperante sounds like a good deal: Carbon fiber body, aluminum frame, big ol' American four valve V8, manual transmission… A perfect recipe for big power in light body! So is it a modern day Shelby Cobra? Both do use Ford engines…

Well, not quite. The Esperante isn't anywhere near as bonkers as a Cobra but don't mistake it for a slouch either. Despite sourcing the drivetrain from a Mustang, it's miles further away from a stock Mustang than anything Steeda, Saleen, or even Roush can sell you.

 First off there is the curvaceous body. Yes, the front end is handicapped, but the side profile and rear of the car are fantastic. A slight knock on the body with one's knuckles returns the distinctive "thud" only composite bodies resonate. Opening the doors, trunk, or hood all show off the thick weave of the hand laid carbon. I likey.

Getting into the car is very easy. The doors aren't too short or too long, the sills aren't massively wide, and with a convertible headroom is infinite. After plopping down in the rather comfortable seats, I immediately was slapped in the face with a trout. I'll admit to being a euro-snob when it comes to automotive interiors. Let's be honest- us Americans suck at it. Design is dated at best, plastics are cheap and overused, and there's always a sense that the interior department had the lowest budget. With this car, Panoz has built a contradiction. It uses the Mustang's instrument cluster… which is in the middle of the dash and faces STRAIGHT backwards. Glancing at the gauges is near impossible, it takes a conscious, physical effort to check your speed or revs. Ugh. The Mustang's HVAC controls are also used but have fancy billet aluminum knobs. However they're recessed into the dash and covered up by the flip-out stereo/navigation unit. Which opens every. time. you. start. the. car. I guess that's why most of these cars are convertibles… it was just easier for Panoz to let mother nature do the temperature. The last big gripe I have with the interior is the steering wheel. It's not in front of the driver. Infact, it's a couple inches to the right of where one's hands would normally be. It feels like an assembly mistake that they forgot to fix. It's just all sorts of wrong and annoying. I've never understood how sports car companies can sell a car with misaligned controls.

But that's the where the interior turns around. Despite being on Pluto, the steering wheel feels very nice. It's thick and soft. All the leather feels like leather. The plastics are smooth and solid. There are lots of bespoke aluminum bits, and a lot of small details like the passenger's air vents that go unnoticed at first. Despite the shortfalls, the Esperante's interior is a nice place to be.


 Whether intentional or not, this car was not built to be a pure driver's car. With bulging grills on the hood, strakes down the fenders, and voluptuous hips it's definitely an attention getter. The roads in South Florida are no stranger to rare and exotic cars, but driving the Panoz was different. When driving a Ferrari through South Florida, other people either ignore or gawk at you. Confusion isn't something motorists there are used to (mainly because they drive through anything and everything that gets in their way). However at nearly every light I was asked what type of car I was driving. It is very strange to feel inconspicuous in that part of the country. The car looks very organic, particularly the vents on the hood. They give the sense that the Esperante gulps in and snorts out air in a vicious way. Which coincidently, it does!

This particular example was upgraded by the manly men at JRD Turning who gave it a few goodies including a supercharger. Weeeeee!

Driving at low, normal city speeds is as mundane as driving any bone stock Mustang GT. The clutch isn't too heavy, the engine idles perfectly, and all in all it's a wonderful cruiser. Mashing the throttle though… it changes the car from "my dear, this is a pleasant experience in our bland and normal everyday car" to "ooohhhh that's what I paid all this money!" The blower starts whinning, the exhaust literally roars at everyone, and the car vaults forward in a pressurized wave of testosterone. The amount of oompf below 5000rpm is entertaining to say the least. Talk about an easy car to get in trouble with!

 For those that don't know Florida. It's flat. It's flat like Kate Moss. It only has one tunnel, which happens to be in my home city of Fort Lauderdale. The tunnel is short, it's shallow, but it's very very loud. Wait around at either entrance for mere minutes and you will hear any number of different symphonies. Sport bikes, muscle cars, exotics, anything with an exhaust note is driven down the tunnel at full throttle to get as much noise as possible. There's just enough room coming out of the tunnel to slow down and avoid a nasty ticket… so this particular stretch of road is South Florida nirvana. The Panoz fit in perfectly in this short slice of heaven. It is literally addicting. The noise this car makes is most excellent indeed!

What most people don't realize is that Panoz is actually a very intelligent engineering firm. Their race cars may not be headline makers, but they are very consistent. They're a very professional bunch of guys who clearly have the itch. They're approachable and unlike many in the racing industry; easy to have a conversation with. All their cars are very clever, very unique, and very niche. I haven't had the experience of driving one on a track or through some serious twisties (which don't exist in Florida), but from the feel of the car you can tell it would be a blast to drive. Even with the steering wheel in Egypt.

So then, trying to liken this car to others out there isn't as straight forward as I had anticipated. It's certainly no Cobra, it would need several hundred more horsepower to reach that level of lunacy. It's definitely not a rebodied Mustang… anyone who says so is a moron. The fit and finish is too good to be a kit car. It's too good to drive to be a pointless waste of money. So what then?

It's a Miata. Just a grown up with a hairy chest. Secretly, I love the Miata. It's small, it's better to drive than pretty much anything under $60,000, it's just great. Great, great, great. But it's a little very feminine. It's just too rounded and too cute. People have tried to change this perception by stuffing V8s in them (I've driven a 5.0 Miata, it's f@$^ing terrifying), but they're still just not a man's car. Spec Miatas and other racing variations are moved away from this "cute" label, but they're not road legal so they don't count.

The Panoz Esperante was designed with lightness in mind. It was designed for power. It was designed to make you enjoy the experience of driving. I envy everyone that gets to fully enjoy the Panoz experience.